Beta Language servers (LSP)

Editora speaks the Language Server Protocol, so with a server installed you get real language smarts. LSP is off by default; turn it on in Settings → LSP.

Navigation

The goto, references and hover commands are also in the editor right-click menu while a server is active, and you can Ctrl/Cmd-click a symbol to jump to its definition. Go to Implementation and Go to Type Definition join that menu only when the server actually supports them, so it never offers a dead entry.

Find references and Go to Implementation list multiple results in a browsable References tool window (tool.references), grouped by file with a line and preview; a single result jumps straight there. Go to Symbol in Workspace opens a live search over every symbol in the project.

Definitions inside libraries work too. A Java definition that lives in the JDK or a dependency is fetched from the server and opened in a read-only, highlighted tab at the right line, and M-. keeps working from inside that tab, either onward into another library class or back into your own code.

Call and type hierarchy open in a Hierarchy tool window. Call hierarchy shows who calls the method under the caret, or what it calls (flip with the Callers / Callees toggle); type hierarchy shows a type’s supertypes and subtypes. Each level is fetched from the server as you expand it, and Enter or a double-click jumps to any entry.

Reading the code

Signature help pops the server’s overload list when you type ( or , in a call: the active signature with the current parameter highlighted, an n/m overload counter, and the signature’s documentation. It follows your typing as arguments are entered and closes when the caret leaves the call, on Escape, or on scroll.

Inlay hints are the server’s parameter-name and inferred-type annotations, drawn in grey italics after each line. They are off by default; turn them on in Settings → Code Completion or with Toggle Inlay Hints. They cost nothing while off.

Occurrence highlighting needs no command: rest the caret on a symbol and every occurrence in the file gets a subtle wash, with writes (assignments) shaded warmer than reads. It is semantic rather than textual, so a local x does not light up an unrelated field x, and it clears the moment the caret moves.

Diagnostics appear as inline squiggles, in the Problems tool window (M-8), and as marks on the minimap and scrollbar. Completion is merged into the autocomplete popup, and the Structure tool window builds its outline from the server’s document symbols, with real kinds, per-kind icons and method signatures.

The Problems window has an Open files / Whole project selector (lsp.toggleProjectProblems), plus a Build Project command (lsp.buildWorkspace) that recompiles the Java project and fills it. Until now problems only ever came from files you had open, so a compile error in a file you hadn’t touched was invisible. The default is unchanged, open files only, so nothing gets noisier unless you ask for it.

Changing the code

Code actions ask the server what it can do at the caret or selection: quick fixes for the diagnostics there, organize imports, generate methods, extract and inline refactorings. The picker lists them with the server’s preferred fix first. Every action shape is supported, including a server-side command whose edits arrive back over workspace/applyEdit. Edits land as normal undoable edits, one undo step per file, and a multi-file fix opens the untouched files in background tabs. Ctrl-. / Cmd-. is bound in the VS Code, Sublime and IntelliJ keymaps; the command is in the palette and the right-click menu in every keymap.

Java code generation rides that same menu: Generate toString(), Generate hashCode() and equals(), Generate Constructors and Override/Implement Methods. Each opens a checkbox list so you choose which fields or methods to include, with Space to toggle and Enter to generate. The server withholds these unless the editor says it can drive the picker, which is why they were absent before.

Three Java commands sit outside the menu: Organize Imports sorts and prunes a file’s imports directly, Copy Fully Qualified Name puts the full name of the symbol at the caret on the clipboard, and Reload Project Configuration makes the server re-read pom.xml or build.gradle when a dependency change hasn’t been picked up.

Rename symbol renames across the whole workspace. The prompt comes pre-filled with the current name, and the server validates the spot first, so you are told up front when something cannot be renamed. Renaming a public Java class also moves its .java file, and the tab, session state and language server all follow to the new path. F2 is bound in the VS Code, Sublime and IntelliJ keymaps.

Format Document reformats the whole file through the server when it advertises formatting (undoable, palette or right-click menu), including .json, .css and .html. In a language whose server supports range formatting, Tab also snaps the current line’s indentation to the server’s convention.

Re-indent as you type does the same on ;, } and Enter. It is indentation only, never a reformat of the line under you, and the local auto-indent still acts first, so nothing feels slower and the server only corrects the cases the heuristic gets wrong. Off by default: turn it on in Settings → Code Completion or with view.toggleOnTypeFormatting.

Folding and selection

Where a server is running, code folding comes from the server’s own understanding of the file instead of brace and indent scanning: an import block folds as one region, javadoc and block comments fold, and multi-line expressions no longer nest wrongly. Expand and shrink selection uses the same source, so it respects strings and comments rather than guessing at brackets.

Both fall back to the built-in behaviour whenever LSP is off, the file is remote, or the server offers neither, so nothing is ever less foldable than it was.

While the server works

Servers that report long-running work through the LSP progress channel (jdtls importing and indexing a project, gopls loading packages, rust-analyzer’s first check) drive the status-bar loading bar and show what they are doing, with a title and percentage, in the echo area.

External file changes are forwarded to the running servers, so a git checkout, a branch switch, a CLI build or an external editor no longer leaves a server’s project model quietly stale. A server that dies mid-session (a crash, an OOM-kill, a failed handshake) is announced in the status bar, has its stale diagnostics cleared, and is restarted for the affected files, with a cap so a server that keeps crashing is not relaunched forever.

Servers are auto-detected, never bundled

Editora doesn’t ship language servers. It looks for each one on your PATH (a Settings field can override the command per server) and uses it if present. Twenty-two servers are supported, plus a Maven-aware pom.xml server:

• Java (jdtls), TypeScript / JavaScript (typescript-language-server), Python (pyright-langserver), Go (gopls), Rust (rust-analyzer), C / C++ (clangd), C# (csharp-ls)
• Ruby (ruby-lsp), PHP (phpactor), Kotlin (kotlin-language-server), Lua (lua-language-server)
• HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, XML (lemminx), Bash (bash-language-server), Dockerfile, SQL (sqls), Terraform (terraform-ls), TOML (taplo), Typst (tinymist)

There is also a Maven-aware pom.xml server (JVM lemminx plus the lemminx-maven extension). It is routed by file name, so a pom.xml gets dependency, plugin and GAV completion while every other XML file keeps the fast native lemminx.

Each server has its own enable checkbox and a live found/not-found status on the Settings → LSP page, plus a per-server command field with a Browse button. Doctor reports the same detection for every enabled server in one place.

One-click install

If a server isn’t installed, Editora can fetch it for you. Every server is covered through four channels, picked per server:

• npm packages (JSON/HTML/CSS, Bash, YAML, Dockerfile, TOML, TypeScript, Python/Pyright), needing Node.
• Toolchain installs that use the language’s own package manager (Go, Ruby, C#, Rust, PHP), which run only when that toolchain is already on your PATH.
• Binary releases downloaded per OS/architecture (clangd, lemminx, Kotlin, terraform-ls, Lua), extracted into your config folder.
• A JVM zip with its dependencies for the Maven-aware pom.xml server, which needs a JDK.

Three entry points: an Install… button per server in Settings → LSP, an in-editor banner when you open a file whose server is missing (turn the nudge off with view.toggleInstallPrompts), and the Install: Language Server… picker (install.languageServer). After installing, the server is auto-detected and activates without a restart. Editora never installs the underlying runtimes (Node, Python, Go, …); if one is missing it tells you which to install first.

Workspace roots and lifetime

A server runs once per workspace root. The root is the active project, else the nearest build marker (pom.xml, package.json, go.mod, Cargo.toml, and so on), else the file’s directory. Files of the same language in one project share a single server.

Servers start per tab, as you visit it, rather than all at once while a session restores, and they shut down when their last file closes, after a three-minute grace period so reopening a file keeps the server warm. Each window gets its own jdtls workspace directory, so two windows on the same Java project can’t contend for one Eclipse workspace lock.

Finding the server’s binary

A GUI-launched app inherits a stripped PATH that often misses Homebrew, npm, and version-manager directories. Editora rebuilds the PATH from your login shell plus the usual install locations before launching a server, which recovers things like nvm’s per-version node bin. If a server still isn’t found, set its absolute path in Settings. See Troubleshooting for details.

Notes and limits

Document sync is incremental for servers that accept it (most of them), with a periodic full resync as a divergence safety net, and semantic highlighting transfers only what changed on servers that support token deltas. Diagnostics for files that aren’t open are dropped by default, to keep the Problems window focused on what you’re editing, and the whole-project selector above lifts that when you want it. Still deferred: format-on-save.